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Clear Cloud, a UK-based cloud computing solutions provider specialising in IT for charities, has successfully assisted Home-Start Lincolnshire with its cloud computing needs. Consisting of a group of charities based in Lincolnshire, Home-Start has been working in this area of England since 1984, with the eight “schemes” throughout Lincolnshire boasting trained volunteers to support local families for a combined total of nearly 32 years helping over 1,000 families and 2,300 children each year. Recently, the charity recognised a need for a flexible and cost-effective IT foundation that would enable it to deliver its valuable family support services from any location. The chief concern here that Home-Start personnel shared was that staff would have to be able to communicate with each other and access their documents from any location – including home. Learning about the cost-savings that can be achieved by adopting Microsoft’s 365 platform as compared to an on-premises server-based model, Home-Start Lincolnshire representatives turned to Clear Cloud to take advantage of some of these benefits. Clear Cloud ensured the charity group is being as cost-effective as possible by moving them to Office 365, boasting significant efficiency and productivity value, with all minutes for meetings and action points now able to be stored and shared via OneNote. According to Home-Start reps, the time savings alone in this endeavor has been significant. By using the full Office 365 feature set, Home-Start Lincolnshire is now 100-percent cloud-based and has not needed to purchase costly servers; this also means that the group can move offices easily and not need to worry about server hardware replacements every four to five years.
We live in a complex world where communication and access should be available 24/7, and a key driver for Home-Start Lincolnshire was to have the ability to communicate with each other from various locations. The fact that various charities were merging into one meant that it was imperative for staff to be able to ‘see’ and communicate with each other across all their offices. Deploying a hosted Skype for Business unified communication solution has enabled this for them.
“I no longer send an email that gets lost in the hundreds of others, or pick up a phone to call the office simply to ask if they are free to talk to me…I can see, instantly, what they are doing,” says Tracey Ruddock, CEO of Home-Start Lincolnshire. “We experienced a process problem in one of our offices, and we were able to get it solved within seconds by asking the question via instant messaging – that alone saved hours of time in problem-solving.”
“Overall knowledge is shared and decisions get made instantly.”
Clear Cloud is based in Lincoln at Clear Cloud Services, BG Futures, Longdales Road, Lincoln, LN1 3DY. They can also be reached by calling 0800 471 4892. For more information visit www.ClearCloudServices.co.uk or email hello@ClearCloudServices.co.uk.
Release ID: 123153